Part of
Recording the "Magical Mystery Tour" soundtrack
Apr 25 - May 3 and Aug 22 - Nov 17, 1967 • Songs recorded during this session appear on Magical Mystery Tour (US LP - Mono)
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- Album Songs recorded during this session officially appear on the Magical Mystery Tour (US LP - Mono) LP.
- Studio:
- Chappell Recording Studios, London UK
Timeline
More from year 1967
Some songs from this session appear on:
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About
After a hiatus since their June 26, 1967 session, The Beatles reunited to record at Chappell Recording Studios, as Abbey Road’s EMI Studios were fully booked. Interestingly, Paul McCartney had recently visited Chappell Recording Studios for a session with The Chris Barber Band on July 20, 1967.
Abbey Road was fully booked on those two nights, but George Martin had been using our studio for quite a few of his other artists and I had worked with him at Olympic and at IBC in the pre-Beatles days when Abbey Road was booked-up.
John Timperley – Engineer at Chappell Recording Studios – From “The Complete Beatles Recording Sessions” by Mark Lewisohn, 1988
During this session, The Beatles focused on Paul McCartney’s composition, “Your Mother Should Know,” which was intended for the soundtrack of their upcoming “Magical Mystery Tour” TV special. They recorded eight takes of the backing track, with Paul on piano and lead vocals and Ringo Starr on drums.
Following this, Paul added a double-tracked lead vocal onto Take 8.
The group continued to work on “Your Mother Should Know” the following day at Chappell Recording Studios.
In the Bag O’ Nails discotheque club one night towards the end of April we (Neil and Mal!) were brought into the group’s discussions on possible items for the “Coach Show”. Basically it was agreed that the plan should be “all-inclusive, non-exclusive”. This meant trying to fit into the show something for everyone, as wide a variety as possible.
On April 25 the backing track for the song “Magical Mystery Tour” was recorded. Two nights later voices were added and on May 3 trumpet accompaniment was put on.
NOW THERE WAS A LONG DELAY BECAUSE THE BBC INVITED THE BEATLES TO TAKE PART IN A ‘LIVE’ WORLD WIDE TELEVISION PROGRAMME FOR WHICH THEY WOULD WRITE A SPECIAL SONG. THE SONG WAS “ALL YOU NEED IS LOVE”, THE PROGRAMME, SEEN AT THE END OF JUNE, WAS “OUR WORLD’. AS YOU KNOW “ALL YOU NEED IS LOVE” BECAME THE MAIN SIDE OF THE BEATLES’ NEXT SINGLE AND THEY PUT “BABY, YOU’RE A RICH MAN” ON THE SECOND SIDE.
So we jump forward to the second half of August to find the next bit of “Magical Mystery Tour” activity — that was after the holiday in Greece and George’s trip to California. On Thursday August 24, only a few days before he died, Brian had a long chat with John, Paul, George and Ringo and everybody talked about “things to be done” for the rest of the year. Brian was very enthusiastic about “Magical Mystery Tour” and wanted us to go ahead right away with filming the show.
From The Beatles Monthly Book, December 1967
Last updated on April 30, 2023
Songs recorded
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Staff
Musicians on "Your Mother Should Know"
- Paul McCartney:
- Lead vocals, Piano
- Ringo Starr:
- Drums
Production staff
Going further
The Complete Beatles Recording Sessions • Mark Lewisohn
The definitive guide for every Beatles recording sessions from 1962 to 1970.
We owe a lot to Mark Lewisohn for the creation of those session pages, but you really have to buy this book to get all the details - the number of takes for each song, who contributed what, a description of the context and how each session went, various photographies... And an introductory interview with Paul McCartney!
The third book of this critically - acclaimed series, nominated for the 2019 Association for Recorded Sound Collections (ARSC) award for Excellence In Historical Recorded Sound, "The Beatles Recording Reference Manual: Volume 3: Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band through Magical Mystery Tour (late 1966-1967)" captures the band's most innovative era in its entirety. From the first take to the final remix, discover the making of the greatest recordings of all time. Through extensive, fully-documented research, these books fill an important gap left by all other Beatles books published to date and provide a unique view into the recordings of the world's most successful pop music act.
If we like to think, in all modesty, that the Paul McCartney Project is the best online ressource for everything Paul McCartney, The Beatles Bible is for sure the definitive online site focused on the Beatles. There are obviously some overlap in terms of content between the two sites, but also some major differences in terms of approach.
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